RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Cochrane has Olympic rings tattooed on his shoulder, which might help us understand just how difficult it was for him to swallow a sixth-place finish in his signature event Saturday night.
Cochrane, a two-time Olympic medallist, who won silver in London and bronze in Beijing, was unable to add to his collection in Rio, finishing well off the podium and he couldn’t immediately come up with a reason why.
“All year long, it was the best training I’ve ever had,” the Victoria native said at the Olympic Aquatic Center. “I was surprising myself every day. I didn’t think at 27 years old I’d be able to do that. It’s really hard to come here and not have it transfer into good results.
“Why did you do these four years of training if it doesn’t pay off in the moment?”
Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy took the gold medal with a time of 14:34.57, while Connor Jaeger of the United States took silver and Gabriele Detti of Italy took bronze.
Cochrane’s time was 14:49.61. Although Paltrinieri set and maintained a pace well ahead of the pack, Cochrane was with the pack vying for the other podium positions until there were about 10 laps left in the race. At that point he fell back, was in fifth position with seven laps left and eventually fell to sixth.
“All year long I thought the motivator when I got to the Olympics was ‘This is your last chance,’” Cochrane said. “We did everything we could to be prepared here today. I had the right mindset and it just didn’t pay off.”
Cochrane may have been hurting but he said the success of the Canadian swim team at these Olympics took away some of the sting.
“I’m very, very happy for them,” he said of the medal winners. “I’m humbled by the process. My medals seem insignificant considering what Penny (Oleksiak) has done in this meet alone. For years and years, we had too many people that weren’t here to win. This team was here to win medals. It’s pretty fantastic to see.”
Cochrane now has to decide if this will be his last Olympics.
“I said if it went mediocre I’d probably be done and if it went really well or really poorly, I’d probably keep going. I would qualify this as really poorly so I’ll need some time to think about that.”
GOLDEN AGAIN
American Michael Phelps added to his already unbelievable legacy with his fifth gold medal of the 2016 Games on Saturday night, helping the United States to the top of the podium in the 4×100 individual medley relay.
Phelps finished the Olympics with six medals — he also had a silver — and now has 28 medals (23 gold) in his record-smashing career.
Most people expect Phelps, 31, to retire from competitive swimming now, but his teammates Ryan Lochte ‘guaranteed’ his teammate will be back to go for more medals in Tokyo in 2020 on Friday.
IN BLUME IN 50
Pernille Blume of Denmark won gold in the women’s 50-metre freestyle in time of 24.07, edging out American Simone Manuel, who picked up her third medal of the games (one gold, two silver). Manuel is a rising star in swimming but she is another one of the American swimmers who gets overshadowed by the amazing exploits of Michael Phelps.
Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus won the bronze medal.
WHERE’S THE GRUB?
The lack of food at Olympic venues has been widely reported and even American swimmer Ryan Lochte found out first-hand on Saturday night.
The 12-time Olympic medallist went looking for something substantial to eat at a concession stand near the press tent, but was told the same thing many of us have been told at these Games: “We are out of almost everything.”
Lochte wondered aloud if he could go out into the Olympic Park to try to find something, to which one observer nearby had the reply: “Good luck with that.”
A MOM’S HIGHLIGHT
For all the glory her daughter has enjoyed at these Olympics, it was a moment of sharing the wealth that stood out for Alison Oleksiak.
The mother of 16-year-old swimming phenom Penny Oleksiak was asked to share her favourite moment of the Games so far and her answer was surprising, considering her daughter has won a gold medal, a silver medal and two bronze medals in Rio.
“My favourite moment was when I saw (Penny) give Michelle (Williams) the medal,” Alison said at an Oleksiak family press conference Saturday.
It was after Canada won a bronze medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay on the first day of competition last Saturday. Williams swam in the heats for the relay, helping Canada advance, but didn’t swim in the final so she didn’t receive her medal on the podium.
Oleksiak wanted to make sure Williams had a medal to wear for their first TV interview, so she hung hers around her teammate’s neck.
“Penelope would not be here without obviously, what (coach) Ben (Titley) and the team have done. That team of girls: Sandrine (Mainville), Michelle (Williams), and Chantal (Van Landeghem), I mean, they were established stars in Canada. I mean, these are established world-class swimmers. And they accepted a 15-year-old into their midst, and they took her in. And when she was in trouble with me because of her data plan, or because of an exam, they stepped in and tutored her, and got her back on the path. So that was my proudest moment, was when I saw that she recognized how important this was for Michelle, and that she recognized the contribution that Michelle had made, and that she gave Michelle the medal. That, for me, was the most important.”
Twyman@postmedia.com